La quête d'Ewilan (Ewilan's Quest)

Direct adaptation from books to animated tv series. Stays true to the core universe and general plot of the first book, but intentionally alters the pacing and exposition structure.

This is by far the most explicitly acknowledged influence. Bottero described his adolescent discovery of Tolkien as a decisive encounter, and "Sur les traces d’Ewilan", a Rageot publication about the series, explicitly notes that La Quête d’Ewilan borrows substantially from Tolkien.

The Dessin and its relationship to creating/altering or accessing realities has been compared directly to Amber's reality-shaping/movement system. Bottero explicitly named Zelazny among the writers who shaped him.

In a November 2007 interview with Fantastinet, Bottero says that he had played role-playing games, “surtout Donjons et Dragons” (EN :especially DnD), and that he wrote scenarios for D&D. He then explains what this experience taught him: “la scénarisation des jeux de rôles exige de rendre cohérentes ses histoires, et diriger une partie m’a appris à faire oublier le monde extérieur à mes joueurs” In other words, he connects RPGs to two things particularly relevant to his fiction:

• constructing coherent stories
• immersing people in an invented world

In a 2009 interview with Lecture Jeune, Bottero says: “Étudiant, j’ai découvert les jeux de rôles, dont Donjons et Dragons, et cela a contribué à ma « formation » d’écrivain.” (En : As a student I discovered RPG's, including DnD and it contributed to my development as a writer) He then explains that, as a game master, he directed players and created situations using his imagination. Crucially, he continues by saying that he thinks this experience can be connected to his writing of Ewilan: “Je pense qu’on peut relier cette expérience avec l’écriture d’Ewilan” (En: I think that we can tie this experience with my writing of Ewilan)

Bottero explicitly read and cited Robert Jordan, and the famous Al-Tor → al'Thor naming coincidence is documented as an involuntary borrowing. But evidence for substantial structural influence on Ewilan is considerably weaker than Tolkien/Zelazny.

Secondary research on Bottero's influences identifies the Arthurian tradition as another definite influence on his imagination. The most obvious example is Merwyn, whose name and narrative role strongly evoke Merlin.